Sam Cunliffe: MIA



  • BShark said:

    Self isn’t doing it though, for whatever reason. I kind of wonder if Cunliffe is going to transfer again. 😕 🤔

    That would suck. Play not even half a season, transfer, sit a year, play half a season, transfer. Kids gotta stick it out sometime you would think. I’m sure its on his mind as he sits there and doesn’t play, everyone wants to play. If he’s really bought in he’ll stick around and work on his game. I’m sure he’ll get a fresh slate this off-season to prove himself



  • I hope he doesn’t to be clear. I mean how much would he have to hate it here to give up a year of eligibility and sit out again? That’s pretty rough.

    I’m interested to see how it all shakes out this off season.



  • I hope that Cunliffe’s camp realizes that he has all the potential in the world, mostly due to his athleticism. That if he sticks it out at KU, he will either be a starter or the 6th man at KU in two seasons. And, that his best path to the NBA or a high paying contract in Europe, is staying at KU. He trains with one of the top S&C coaches every day, in one of the best basketball facilities in the country, all while practicing against future professional players every single day. If he wants to transfer, he should really just redshirt next season here at KU, bust his ass and take advantage of the facilities, and then see if he would start or be a rotation player at KU two years from now. If he isn’t, he could grad transfer and play right away somewhere else. I’m sure at that point he would basically be forced out anyways.

    Sam does have the option to transfer at year end though, because he didn’t use his redshirt this last transfer. I would not be surprised if that is the route he goes. I do not think it is his best option, as I mentioned above.



  • Cunliffe certainly looks cryo iced.

    Does he drive a Dodge Charger? 😏

    Self can change quickly though.

    He could blow cold on Silvio again—not likely but a significant possibility, if the last game’s fouls and TOs habituate.

    Mitch seemed to struggle a bit, too.

    All non starters are on a micron thin bubble. None of them are shoe ins not to be recruited over. None of them are contributing enough to endure excessive fouls and TOs.

    If their fouls and TOs trend up two games, their PT appears to decline.

    Or an injury can happen.



  • BShark said:

    I hope he doesn’t to be clear. I mean how much would he have to hate it here to give up a year of eligibility and sit out again? That’s pretty rough.

    I’m interested to see how it all shakes out this off season.

    He could end up being a graduate transfer if he never moves into the rotation or starts.



  • Texas Hawk 10 said:

    BShark said:

    I hope he doesn’t to be clear. I mean how much would he have to hate it here to give up a year of eligibility and sit out again? That’s pretty rough.

    I’m interested to see how it all shakes out this off season.

    He could end up being a graduate transfer if he never moves into the rotation or starts.

    Not eligible for it yet unless he’s graduating 2 years early…



  • Kcmatt7 said:

    I hope that Cunliffe’s camp realizes that he has all the potential in the world, mostly due to his athleticism. That if he sticks it out at KU, he will either be a starter or the 6th man at KU in two seasons. And, that his best path to the NBA or a high paying contract in Europe, is staying at KU. He trains with one of the top S&C coaches every day, in one of the best basketball facilities in the country, all while practicing against future professional players every single day. If he wants to transfer, he should really just redshirt next season here at KU, bust his ass and take advantage of the facilities, and then see if he would start or be a rotation player at KU two years from now. If he isn’t, he could grad transfer and play right away somewhere else. I’m sure at that point he would basically be forced out anyways.

    Sam does have the option to transfer at year end though, because he didn’t use his redshirt this last transfer. I would not be surprised if that is the route he goes. I do not think it is his best option, as I mentioned above.

    He would have to sit another year and lose another year of Eligibility. Sit one more to play 1 season… Can’t see that being something they want to do but who knows we’ve seen plenty of dumb choices



  • @BShark I would have liked to have seen Sam get a few minutes against Baylor. I love how well Garrett plays defense and hustles, but he is becoming a liability on offense as teams no longer respect his shot (he seems to have no confidence in it either.



  • @BeddieKU23

    At the end of the season we will have 3 years left of eligibility and 3 calendar years to complete them. At the end of the season he will have been in college 2 years, so, if he graduates in 4 years, that is 2 years after the season, he will gave 1 year of eligibility and 1 calendar year left…like Coleby did



  • JayHawkFanToo said:

    @BeddieKU23

    At the end of the season we will have 3 years left of eligibility and 3 calendar years to complete them.

    I’m not sure about this. Heard otherwise from other people and he is listed as a RS SO on KU athletics official site. Confusing tbh.



  • @BeddieKU23 I didn’t think he used his redshirt on the transfer and just used the 1 year of eligibility.

    But perhaps I was wrong. I guess his best options are basically stick it out and see if he can crack the rotation, or be a grad transfer.



  • JayHawkFanToo said:

    @BeddieKU23

    At the end of the season we will have 3 years left of eligibility and 3 calendar years to complete them. At the end of the season he will have been in college 2 years, so, if he graduates in 4 years, that is 2 years after the season, he will gave 1 year of eligibility and 1 calendar year left…like Coleby did

    I don’t believe that’s correct. He’s a Soph. currently. He didn’t finish a full year at ASU however lost his freshman status leaving and becoming eligible after the Fall semester this year.

    Silvio is in the same camp. He lost his fall semester but is playing the spring and will be a Soph in the fall.



  • @BeddieKU23 Yeah. With Silvio it doesn’t really matter at least, because I don’t think he stays more than 3 seasons (2 and a half in this case) tops. Plus this half year should really give him a leg up next year. Possibly getting him to be able to go pro if Self is able to land another killer haul in 19. As Silvio going pro is imo the only way possible to land JRE and Hurt.



  • BShark said:

    @BeddieKU23 Yeah. With Silvio it doesn’t really matter at least, because I don’t think he stays more than 3 seasons (2 and a half in this case) tops. Plus this half year should really give him a leg up next year. Possibly getting him to be able to go pro if Self is able to land another killer haul in 19. As Silvio going pro is imo the only way possible to land JRE and Hurt.

    It sounds like Silvio and his camp want him in the NBA after next year. We’ll see whether he is good enough after next season to make that happen



  • @BeddieKU23

    It does get very confusing. This link lists him just like Moore who after this season will have 3 years of eligibility and 3 calendar years.



  • Kcmatt7 said:

    @BeddieKU23 I didn’t think he used his redshirt on the transfer and just used the 1 year of eligibility.

    But perhaps I was wrong. I guess his best options are basically stick it out and see if he can crack the rotation, or be a grad transfer.

    I’m not sure of the exact rules that apply to Cunliffe because transferring mid-season complicates things. I do know that when he transferred from ASU to KU he lost the remaining eligibility he had as a freshman. Sitting the required year per the transfer rules could technically not be considered a red-shirt. If KU had redshirted him for the spring semester of 2018 there’s a chance he would have had 3 years left to play 3 having sat 1 calendar year + another half semester. As it stands he’ll go into 2018-19 year with 2 years to play 2 unless he was injured and applied for a medical waiver (something KJ Lawson received for example) or redshirted another full year either at KU or somewhere else.



  • JayHawkFanToo said:

    @BeddieKU23

    It does get very confusing. This link lists him just like Moore who after this season will have 3 years of eligibility and 3 calendar years.

    Interesting. It is confusing.

    If Sam had sat this semester out I believe that would have counted as a redshirt year (transfer year + half a semester). He could redshirt next season but that sounds silly to play half a season then red-shirt and have to sit another year out.



  • @BeddieKU23

    As I understand it, after this season he will have completed one season of play (2 halves) and one of red shirt sitting (again, 2 halves) and used up 2 of the 5 calendar years, so he will have 3 years of eligibility and 3 calendar years…but I could be wrong.



  • Just like cf did at WSU. Only 2 1/2 years left then



  • I’d be bummed to watch a smaller freshman who can’t shoot 3s, FGs or PTs (Garrett) starting and getting 20 minutes a game while I sit on the bench, maybe to the point of leaving if I was Sam. Again, I don’t see practices, I guess Garrett is a better defender, and I’m not a coach, but sure seems we could find a guard who offers a bit more upside.



  • StLJhawk said:

    I’d be bummed to watch a smaller freshman who can’t shoot 3s, FGs or PTs (Garrett) starting and getting 20 minutes a game while I sit on the bench, maybe to the point of leaving if I was Sam. Again, I don’t see practices, I guess Garrett is a better defender, and I’m not a coach, but sure seems we could find a guard who offers a bit more upside.

    From all that we hear the staff loves Marcus which we all know can play a big part in someone playing vs not playing. Continuing to invest minutes in him now seems like an investment in his and the team’s future. We rarely see him making mistakes turning the ball over, or being out of position defensively for a freshman.

    He is shooting 57% from the field on 2’s, not all is lost for him there. I do agree though there are times especially recently where his lack of offensive ability is appearing to be a major weakness. Teams have scouted accordingly. It’s definitely a mental thing for him right now. All we can hope is he finds a way out of this



  • @StLJhawk

    Cunliffe averaged 25 mpg for a second tier ASU team and probably saw his time not increasing there. Unrealistic to think he would transfer to an elite program and expect equal or more time. No question that missing the fist part of the season where all the experimenting and tweaking is done hurt him, on the other hand, he was not particularly impressive in the Italian tour either.



  • @JayHawkFanToo ASU wasn’t particularly good a year ago, but he started and averaged 25mpg/10ppg/5rbg as a freshman - that’s pretty decent production for a frosh at a Power 5 conference school. Not sure why is his mind it wouldn’t have been realistic to think he would start as a sophomore, or at least getting meaningful game time. I really, really doubt he would have transferred if he had any inkling that it would mostly be DNP - Coach’s Decision. What is befuddling to me - acknowledging that I don’t see him in practice every day - is that a guy who scored in double digits in games against UNLV and Kentucky (albeit not efficiently) and seems to have some athleticism couldn’t be giving us some decent minutes off the bench, even if just a couple of minutes breather, or when one of the other 5 perimeter guys gets a couple of quick fouls or clearly doesn’t have their head in the game…



  • Not efficient and putting up numbers on a bad team are the key. His advanced numbers at ASU were truly awful. They are actually better this year at KU in his very limited time.

    I would agree though that not playing at all is a bit odd.



  • @DCHawker I agree totally. Wish somebody could ask coach.



  • I think he will play soon but the focus now is getting Silvio into the mix. Room to involve Sam later.



  • @mayjay yes, I’m quite happy to have us focus on Silvio now too. Still, I feel bad for Sam. I’ll stop whining about it though and trust Self to do the right thing.



  • Jesse Newell‏Verified account @jessenewell

    Bill Self says Sam Cunliffe still has a lot to learn from a basketball standpoint. Self says he hasn’t performed well in his limited opportunities, both in games and practice.

    🤔



  • Poor Sam. The bench it is. Nothing to read from it



  • BeddieKU23 said:

    Poor Sam. The bench it is. Nothing to read from it

    alt text



  • Sam just got the worst review I have ever read Self reputedly give.

    Has Self found another 5-star that wants to decommit, or transfer in?

    Is the Jayhawk at center court big?



  • jaybate 1.0 said:

    Sam just got the worst review I have ever read Self reputedly give.

    Has Self found another 5-star that wants to decommit, or transfer in?

    Is the Jayhawk at center court big?

    I already posted this on another KU site but Cunliffe just doesn’t strike me as the type that succeeds under Self. The fact that he had a film crew following him around during practice was a warning sign to me.

    Plus as mentioned before his advanced stats on a really bad ASU team were not good. I think Self would rather have a hard working underrated 3* even. Jmo.



  • @BShark

    Sam had what???



  • @jaybate-1-0 If you end up getting your hands on a copy of Beyond the Streak by Jason King you will see many discussions regarding the value of Brady Morningstar. Not just from his teammates, and high praise from coach Self, but from those around the league who identified him as one of the toughest defenders in the league. The book also talks about Selby’s foot injury and how he never came back from that.

    As far as what EJ and Releford could have done as sophomores against VCU, we will never definitively know. We do know for a fact, however, that they were key role players to a run at the NC in 2012 and then blew a 14 point lead in 8 Minutes against a Michigan team a year later as seniors. Experience usually helps, but it doesn’t guarantee anything in March.





  • CRH107 said:

    @BShark

    Sam had what???

    Before he went to ASU as a freshman he had these hype videos of him working out etc. Comes from a real athletic family.



  • WOW…Thank you @dylans and @BeddieKU23



  • @BeddieKU23 of girls!



  • Apparently he is injured. Comes from Matt Scott.



  • @dylans wow. Whole bunch of saying nothing and posing with an iPhone.



  • approxinfinity said:

    @dylans wow. Whole bunch of saying nothing and posing with an iPhone.

    He has apparently been towing the line, doing and saying the right things at KU. Maybe he got his butt kicked and it adjusted his head better.



  • 15 points for Evansville in an upset bid at Kentucky 👀



  • Kcmatt7 said:

    15 points for Evansville in an upset bid at Kentucky 👀

    6-13 shooting including 2-7 from 3. 6 turnovers 0 assists. He’d fit right in on this KU team! 😂



  • Lol they beat Kentucky



  • for a guy that sucks - he sure hit to HUGE free throws to seal it - - nothing but net – 17 points - - Good for Sam.

    Lmao - -ahhh doggone it - - Evansville picked 7-8th in the Missouri Valley. - - Unranked beating # 1 on their home floor - breaks my heart - pretty much lead that game from wire to wire.

    Now time to Watch Memphis against Oregon



  • How many boards did he have?





  • Mitch and boys were watching, cheering him on from his Snapchat.



  • Houston has a big crowd.🤣



  • Grimes 0-3 from deep. Stunning really.


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